Cycling safety: Quantifying the under reporting of cycling incidents in Vancouver, British Columbia

Abstract

Cycling safety practice relies on available incident data, typically official reports such as police records, hospitalizations, or insurance claims. However this data is far from complete. Given differences in insurance, hospital, and enforcement policies, reporting practices vary by setting and crash circumstances. We aimed to characterize under reporting rates for cycling incidents in Vancouver, Canada, comparing population survey data to insurance claims. We conducted a panel survey of 1148 adult residents (>18 years, Leger panel) living in the Vancouver, BC in October 2015. Survey questions included cycling frequency, the frequency of crashes and falls in the past three months, as well as incident circumstances and reporting (to insurance, policy, or hospital). We conducted descriptive analysis to characterize incident circumstances and under reporting. Overall 3.4% (39/1148) of respondents reported cycling as their primary mode of transportation and 42.4% (487/1148) cycled in the past year. Thirty cyclists reported 50 crashes or falls in the past three months (range 1–14; 76.7% (23/30) reported one incident). We had circumstances and reporting data for 41 incidents (up to 5 per respondent). Of these, 27 resulted in an injury and only 5 of these (18.5%) were reported for insurance claims, the official source of road safety data in BC. By self-report, the most common incident circumstance was the cyclist making a maneuver to avoid a collision (20/41, 48.8%) and a third (13/41, 31.7%) were collisions with a motor vehicle. Our findings suggest that reliance on insurance claims, the primary data available on safety in the province, drastically underestimates the burden of cycling incidents, particularly those not involving a collision with a motor vehicle. Innovations are needed in cycling safety incident surveillance.